Jackson's Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters

by John Buchanan

Overview

Praise for Jackson's Way

"A compelling account of Jackson's Indian-fighting days . . . as well a grand sweep of the conquest of the trans-Appalachian West, a more complex, bloody, and intrigue-filled episode than is generally appreciated. . . . Mr. Buchanan writes with style and insight. . . . This is history at its best."
-The Wall Street Journal

"An excellent study . . . of an area and a time period too long neglected by historians . . . provides valuable new information, particularly on the Indians."
-Robert Remini, author of Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars

"John Buchanan has written a book that explodes with action and drama on virtually every page. Yet the complex story of the birth of the American West never loses its focus-Andrew Jackson's improbable rise to fame and power. This is an American saga, brilliantly told by a master of historical narrative."
-Thomas Fleming, author of Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America

From John Buchanan, the highly acclaimed author of The Road to Guilford Courthouse, comes a compulsively readable account that begins in 1780 amidst the maelstrom of revolution and continues throughout the three tumultuous decades that would decide the future course of this nation. Jackson's Way artfully reconstructs the era and the region that made Andrew Jackson's reputation as "Old Hickory," a man who was so beloved that men voted for him fifteen years after his death. Buchanan resurrects the remarkable man behind the legend, bringing to life the thrilling details of frontier warfare and of Jackson's exploits as an Indian fighter-and reassessing the vilification that has since been heaped on him because of his Indian policy. Culminating with Jackson's defeat of the British at New Orleans-the stunning victory that made him a national hero-this gripping narrative shows us how a people's obsession with land and opportunity and their charismatic leader's quest for an empire produced what would become the United States of America that we know today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780471282532
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	01/01/2001
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.58(h) x 1.41(d)

About the Author

John Buchanan, formerly an archivist at Cornell University and Chief Registrar of The Metropolitan Museum of Art where he was in charge of worldwide art movements, is the author of The Road to Guilford Courthouse (Wiley). He lives with his wife in New York City.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations and Maps	viii
	Preface	ix
	Prologue	1
Chapter 1	Beginnings	11
Chapter 2	Vanguard of Empire	32
Chapter 3	The Frontier	39
Chapter 4	The Cumberland Salient	51
Chapter 5	Under Siege	65
Chapter 6	"I Am a Native of This Nation & of Rank in It"	79
Chapter 7	The Rise of Andrew Jackson	108
Chapter 8	Buchanan's Station and Nickajack	127
Chapter 9	"When You Have Read This Letter over Three Times, Then Burn It"	144
Chapter 10	Major General Andrew Jackson	156
Chapter 11	Conspiracy and Blood	174
Chapter 12	Old Hickory	190
Chapter 13	Massacre	208
Chapter 14	"Time Is Not to Be Lost"	226
Chapter 15	Mutiny	243
Chapter 16	They "Whipped Captain Jackson, and Run Him to the Coosa River"	265
Chapter 17	Horseshoe Bend	279
Chapter 18	"We Have Conquered"	291
Chapter 19	"I Act without the Orders of Government"	302
Chapter 20	"To Arms!"	315
Chapter 21	"I Will Smash Them, so Help Me God!"	329
Chapter 22	Beauty and Booty	342
	Epilogue	363
	Notes	371
	Selected Bibliography	407
	Index	417

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"I enjoyed it very much. It?s an excellent study . . . of an area and a time period too long neglected by historians . . . provides valuable new information, particularly on the Indians."
(Robert Remini, author of The Life of Andrew Jackson)

Editorial Reviews

* With tremendous admiration, even reverence, for his subject, Buchanan (The Road to Guilford Courthouse) recounts Andrew Jackson's early career and rise to American war hero. He focuses on the westward expansion from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River, which he describes as a "folk movement" or mass migration of rough, often lawless people determined to lay claim to a new land and to fight until they prevailed. With graphic first-person accounts of Indian massacres and the retaliatory strikes of settlers, the author provides a very detailed military history of Jackson's defeat of the Chicamunga Cherokees and the creek tribes who claimed sovereignty, until 1814, over the southeastern United States, and of his victory at the battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. Buchanan uses quotations from primary sources so well that they blend almost seamlessly with his own writing, which can sound oddly archaic and overwrought to modern ears (soldiers are "released by death"; British ships bound "eaglelike over the waves"). In Buchanan's eyes, Jackson is nothing short of "superhuman," and there is little balance in his treatment of Jackson's controversial views on Indians (the future president eschewed the idea of Indian sovereignty, although Buchanan argues that it was the English, and not the Indians, whom Jackson hated) or his invasion of Florida, a possession of Neutral Spain, at the close of the Creek Indian war. Buchanan is unabashedly nostalgic for the days when battlefields were "fields of honor" and the ungoverned individualism and hunger for expansion of the frontier was at the forefront of the American experience. This account will appeal mainly to those who enjoy military history. (Publishers Weekly)

"John Buchanan gives a compelling account of Jackson's Indian-fighting days, but he provides as well a grand sweep of the conquest of the trans-Appalachian West...Mr. Buchanan writes with style and insight. He accepts the reality of the conquest, understands the era and the people and, refreshingly, does not attempt to pose modern-day sensibilities on the events. This is history at its best." (The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2001)

From the Publisher

A popular history of Jackson's campaign to gain lasting American control of the Old Southwest<-->territory that stretched from the Appalachians to the Mississippi and from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico. The struggle with the territory's powerful Native tribes lasted nearly three decades and ended in an Indian war that made Jackson one of the most controversial men in US history. It's a narrative of people's obsession with land and Jackson's quest for an empire in a period that is frequently overshadowed in our time by images of Indians, cavalry, and cowboys West of the Mississippi. Buchanan is a former archivist (Cornell U.) and the author of . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A level, intelligent, and thoroughly readable biography of Old Hickory, from historian Buchanan (The Road to Guilford Courthouse, not reviewed). Though no revisionist, Buchanan does try to put Jackson's Indian fighting days into perspective in this ranging history of his life through the War of 1812. He suggests that Jackson's hardscrabble youth (he was reared in the crude, violent backcountry of South Carolina) burned far more hatred in him of the British—who had killed his mother, brothers, and nearly himself—than of the Indians. The author charts his course from young Jackson reading law in North Carolina, through his days as public prosecutor and then understudy to Governor William Blount, through to his command of troops during the Creek Campaign of the War of 1812. The lands that would become Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida—originally known as the Old Southwest—hung in the balance: Spain, Britain, and France had toeholds and designs here, and it was their presence (rather than bloodlust) that spurred Jackson on. He himself hardly denied that the fighting was godawful:"The carnage was dreadful," he said of the battle at Horseshoe Bend. And Buchanan doesn't play down Jackson's frequent scorched-earth policy, but rather places it within the parameters of national acquisition. The real strength of this study, however, lies in its thoroughgoing history of colonial-native relations, good and bad, and the quick sketches of the important figures in the bloody conquest of the Old Southwest. Buchanan also does a fine job of explaining the political context of the final battle for Florida, which became a crucialelementofJackson's reputation. An appealing popular history that is happy to follow various byways to flesh out its portrait of the seventh president's early years: most readers should be happy to tag along. (17 illustrations, 4 maps)

Kirkus Reviews